Tags system

I was thinking that having all defined for either second language or first timers (those that discover the fetishes from this site, I am part of this group) could then understand the tags.Quick and dirty html table using 2 fairly easy and known to me fetishes:<table width="1108" border="1"> <tr> <td width="100">Tag</td> <td width="445">Full Tag</td> <td width="541">Definition</td> </tr> <tr> <td>be</td> <td>Breast Expansion</td> <td>An increase to breast size.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>gts</td> <td>Giantism</td> <td>A person of at least 10 feet height.</td> </tr></table> I kept the first column at 100 as I think you were keeping the tags smaller than that, but they can be changed, I don't quite know how to make them em stretch to the screen, or if that's even possible.Another idea/question I have is whether the system can handle css? I was thinking if so that the list of tags could be a css database and any change made to the tags there would be globally reflected, such as renaming a tag: be to bgro for example (not actually meaning we should rename be). I understand it is probably far too late in roll out for such a system to be implemented.

The ability to rename tags is something I've wanted to do since the beginning, but haven't gotten round to implementing it. The feature would need to search through all the existing .tag files and replace any occurrence of the old tag with the new one. Maybe someday.

I don't actually specify the width of the current tag columns or the table; I just specify that there are three columns and let the browser figure out the formatting. Keepin' it simple and primitive.

For the last few days, every time I've tried to do a tag search I've received the response that the server was too busy, even when it's been at what I'd expect to be a quiet time of day (allowing for the time difference between the UK, where I am, and the US). I wondered if anything could be broken?

So I saw people were complaining about the quality of some of the writing.com episodes Dogmann has been archiving here, and it got me thinking. Tags are as good a way as avoiding something you're not into as finding what you are. So would there be cause for a tag for this kind of episode - 'chaff' or 'junk' or something if we're feeling mean, maybe 'short' if we're being kinder? That way when they came up as search results people would know they probably weren't worth the time to check out.

The issues would be that no-one would tag their own episodes like this (indeed, such episodes are rarely tagged by their creators at all) so it wouldn't be much use on the recents list, plus if used over-aggressively it could create a passive-aggressive or unwelcoming atmosphere and may put off authors who perhaps start like this but may one day develop to more substantial episodes. Thoughts?

The other thing I wanted to raise is that when I see links to the UBEA posted on /d people complain about the site's impenetrability. I've been here years, and tags are a good step towards making the site more navigable for newcomers, but being given results as single episodes is only of limited use in a site revolving around long-running and ever-building storylines.

Since storylines - by which I mean these (http://bearchive.com/~addventure/game1/trees/tags/root1572.html) pages, sorry if it's the wrong term - display tag totals, would it be possible, I wonder, to make a storyline tag search? Results would most usefully be listed in order of frequency of the searched for tag(s) (If multiple, the frequency of both tags added together is probably the simplest way to do it). I'm not sure whether gross (raw number of episodes with that tag in the storyline) or proportion (episodes with that tag divided by episodes in the storyline) would be a better measure for ordering.

If feasible, such a search would do the most good somewhere prominent like the landing page, or on a dedicated 'search' page off the landing page (which could also contain a link to the episode-search) rather than the recents page where veterans know to go straight off.

It could also be done with authors since they have tag-totals too, though storylines is perhaps better for newbies navigating the site.

Finally, while not tag-related I do have another idea to help newcomers navigate. Say they come via a search or a link and read something they like. Would it be technically possible to put a 'Read this story from the beginning' link next to the back to parent link?

For example clicking it in a 'Mitch & the Maigic T-Shirts' ep would take you to 1199488. Clicking the link on that ep would take them to 1199480 ('Mitch's Impending BE Addventure: Yard Sale'). Then on through 870387 ('Mitch & Blue: To Live a Dream'), 791911 ('Meet Blue', the start of the 'Blue the Blueberry' storyline), and finally to 1572, the ultimate start of Mitch's Blueberry. This may seem long-winded when some would argue after jumping back to the first Magic T-shirt ep, the next most-relevant jump-back is the start of Mitch's Blueberry all together, but providing as many jumping-on points as possible strikes me as the most friendly option.

Hm, well I don't want to create tags that would essentially be a rating system for episodes. Rating systems easily lead to feuds between authors and raters. Being able to label episodes as "junk" would certainly do that.

Now, being able to tag episodes as being "short" or "long" might make sense, I'll think about that one. But those are subjective measurements too.

I agree that doing some sort of linking with storylines would make things more accessible.

The first hurdle to overcome is that the storyline tags are not part of the Addventure code. They're part of the Index only, and the Addventure code doesn't have access to them. To do any sort of linking in the Addventure, I'd have to work out a way for the storyline tags to get into the Addventure database.

I have thought about ways of doing that before, though that was mainly so we could put storyline links on the Recent Episodes lists. Putting links inside the episodes themselves would be awkward because storylines frequently change as new branchings become evident. Each time a storyline tag was split into new chˇld storylines, all the episodes in the new chˇld would have to be updated with a new storyline link.

For a storyline search -- what I think you're saying is to let the user search for a content tag, like we have now, but have it search the storyline pages rather than the individual episodes?

Sounds interesting, but again this would require adding (and updating) the storyline tags into the Addventure database, and associating content tags with the storyline tags...

On the other hand, alternatively such a search could be associated with the Index rather than the Addventure -- though then I would have to create a new Index database (there isn't one now) and use it to link content tags to authors and storylines... that might work better (though the search would have access both databases...)

Thanks Adama. I made the suggestions knowing they might not be wise/feasible, but thought it wouldn't hurt to get them out there.

Storyline links on the recent page does still sound useful, and I guess I was focusing too much on getting the older stuff more accessible that I didn't think about what a pain the shifting storylines/roots would be on newer episodes.

Regarding the storyline search, yes, what you describe is what I'd imagined, with the search turning up links to this kind of page http://bearchive.com/~addventure/game1/trees/tags/root102.html. In my limited knowledge of how the technical side of the UBEA works the fact that tag counts appear on these pages now led me to wonder if it would be possible to search these, as well as episodes. Since every longer storyline will probably contain most tags at least once though, (as in Mitch's Blueberry here http://bearchive.com/~addventure/game1/trees/tags/root1572.html), to be any use there'd have to be a way to rank results by desired tag frequency, not just date or number (in this case root) as is done with the episodes.

Storyline links on the recent page does still sound useful, and I guess I was focusing too much on getting the older stuff more accessible that I didn't think about what a pain the shifting storylines/roots would be on newer episodes.

It's not just newer episodes that shift storylines. Any time there's a particularly huge storyline I look for ways to break it down into a series of smaller sub-storylines, and whenever that happens all the episodes in that sub-storyline get reassigned to it. Happens with old episodes too.

the fact that tag counts appear on these pages now led me to wonder if it would be possible to search these, as well as episodes.

The main technical issue there is that the tags listed on the storyline pages come from a database on my hard drive, like all the Index pages do. Unlike the tags listed in the episodes and Recents lists, which come from a database on the server. So the first issue (which I have considered for a while) is to create a modified version of the Index database onto the server.

And yeah, you've got a point about the search needing a ranking system.

Is anyone else noticing that someone keeps putting unnecessary tags on Episode 2? I occasionally change the tags back to "ubea & root", but eventually some other person (maybe the same person) goes on there and changes the tags to a bunch that have nothing to do with the episode.

Yes, they've been doing it ever since the tag system was introduced, and it's very annoying. They seem to think that if any descendant episode - no matter how deep in the tree - features a fetish, then the ancestor ought to be tagged with it. Of course for episode 2 every episode is a descendant, so they add every possible tag. Of course that makes the tagging totally useless for finding episodes that one is interested in. Personally, I don't think that even fetishes that feature in the options of an episode but that aren't mentioned in the body should be tagged.

Personally, I don't think that even fetishes that feature in the options of an episode but that aren't mentioned in the body should be tagged.

I agree with that. I might take the title of the episode into consideration when tagging, but I never do the same with the options. Those are just directions the story can go in next; they're not part of the episode itself.

Since storylines - by which I mean these (http://bearchive.com/~addventure/game1/trees/tags/root1572.html) pages, sorry if it's the wrong term - display tag totals, would it be possible, I wonder, to make a storyline tag search? Results would most usefully be listed in order of frequency of the searched for tag(s) (If multiple, the frequency of both tags added together is probably the simplest way to do it). I'm not sure whether gross (raw number of episodes with that tag in the storyline) or proportion (episodes with that tag divided by episodes in the storyline) would be a better measure for ordering.

If feasible, such a search would do the most good somewhere prominent like the landing page, or on a dedicated 'search' page off the landing page (which could also contain a link to the episode-search) rather than the recents page where veterans know to go straight off.

It could also be done with authors since they have tag-totals too, though storylines is perhaps better for newbies navigating the site.

The Storyline and Author tags searches have finally been implemented, links on the Recent Episodes page.

The Storyline and Author tags searches have finally been implemented, links on the Recent Episodes page.

Thanks Adama, I noticed a while ago but haven't logged in for a while either. This is great, and should be really useful for new people coming here for a specific thing, or authors looking for a particular kind of storyline to add on to.